294 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
county, and is apparently increasing in numbers: 
this increase is probably partly owing to the destruc- 
tion of the larger Hawks and birds of prey by game- 
keepers, and also to the extreme wariness of the 
birds themselves, who do not often give a chance of 
a shot at them in the day-time: in the evening, how- 
ever, during the autumn and winter, when they come 
into the woods and plantations to roost in large flocks, 
considerable numbers may be shot by any one lying 
in wait for them under the trees, especially if the 
evening be rough and windy. 
In the autumn and earlier part of the winter 
Wood Pigeons are very good eating—almost, if not 
quite, equal to Partridges; and the farmer may then 
repay himself for the damage done to his crops by 
these birds, and have an evening’s sport into the 
bargain; but later in the winter and towards the 
beginning of spring, when they attack the crops of 
Swede and other turnips, I cannot say so much for 
their goodness for the kitchen, as they then become 
very rank and bitter. 
After reading the following bill of fare no one wall 
be surprised that the farmer is occasionally a little 
put out by the way his crops are devoured by Wood 
Pigeons, especially where they are at all numerous ; 
but, after all, the damage done to him does not 
appear to be sufficient to warrant such extraordinary 
means of destruction as poisoned grain or shooting 
the birds on their nests (when they are certainly 
